First Lady Michelle Obama introduces President Barack Obama at a DNC fundraiser at Gotham Hall, September 20

“This is like our date night,” Michelle Obama said. She thanked organizers for the “intimate” 400-person dinner, at which singer Alicia Keys performed for donors who anted up at least $2,500 each. “Who knows what will happen?”

The first lady said people often ask her if the presidency is taking a toll on her husband. “The only difference I can think of is the salt is starting to catch up with the pepper” in his hair, she said. “I think it’s quite sexy.”

As she spoke about meeting her husband decades ago in Chicago, she said: “That’s the same man who won me over all those nights ago.”

When President Obama himself took the stage later, he declared that he was “in a New York state of mind” but he also seemed to be in an affectionate state of mind.

“She’s not bad. Do you notice how she’s getting cuter,” Obama said. “She is remarkable.”

He called the event “the closest we get to a date,” though he said could perhaps arrange a real date “in about 14 months.”

“This is not my idea of a date night,” he added later. “Normally our dates don’t end with me being before 400 of our closest friends.

****

Wow, that tweet must have hurt for Mark Knoller to type :lol:

President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama walk off stage after attending a DNC fundraiser at Gotham Hall

192 Responses to “gotham hall”

You know nintendowii10, I was so utterly depressed by today’s news I couldn’t even bear to post about it. I’m just at a loss to understand the decision, they must know they are about to execute a man who is more than probably innocent. I just don’t know what to say.

On MSNBC, Jonathan Alter — the author of a more sympathetic book on Obama’s first year than Ron Suskind’s — offers a different theory of the White House:

ANCHOR: What about the claim he makes about Peter Orzag and Larry Summers saying they were “home alone” in the White House. As if the president was disengaged.

ALTER: I heard that “home alone” when I was reporting and talking to many of the same people and they said they couldn’t get anybody from the Treasury Department and the key policymakers confirmed. It was three or four people trying to prevent a depression and felt like they were home alone in the book. The context of it is Obama was not up to the job and they longed for Bill Clinton. I have a whole chapter in my book where I talked to all the former Clinton people who now work for Obama. I asked them all, compare Clinton and Obama.

ANCHOR: They said?

ALTER: They gave a sophisticated answer. They thought Clinton was more creative and his policymaking, but they prefer to a person Obama in a crisis, which was what they were in. He was decisive and making as many decisions in a week as Bill Clinton made in a year, and making the decisions crisply. The idea that somehow all the former Clinton officials working for Obama were longing for Bill Clinton because they had this inexperienced president who didn’t know what he was doing is not what they were saying at the time. I was talking to not just a few, but pretty much all of the former Clinton people in the White House at high and mid-levels.

And it will, because right now folks just aren’t in the mood for some insanely rich former Wall St. Journalist peddling his latest gossip book while the country is suffering and people need jobs – when the one person working on their behalf is President Obama, not Suskind.

David Jones, head of consulting firm DMJ Advisors and the author of four books on the Federal Reserve, said he cannot remember another time when members of Congress had made such a direct approach to the Fed in the week that the central bank was meeting.
“It is inappropriate for politicians to try to exert this kind of influence,” said Jones. He said it would make the Fed’s job of managing interest rates tougher because financial markets will become concerned about whether the central bank could be unduly influenced by political pressure.

My take: The Republicans know nothing about the Federal Reserve, or how to deal with it; hence, their attempts to influence it. And yet if President Obama sent a letter, they’d say he was adversely impacting Wall Street and those nervous nellies. Unbelievable. Hands off the Federal Reserve!

I ahve never seen the GOP this desparate. Guys why are they afraid of Obama so much that there is voter restriction, massive public employee purge In GOP govened states. I have never seen this before.
zindy

Some things you should know about Nader which should make us seriously question his true motives and agenda:

1. He has never talked about running in a primary or as a 3rd party for a congressional seat – yet it’s congress that enacts legislation. He always seems to want to run during Presidential elections, always from the left…WHY?

2. He is primarily funded by Republicans – why is that?

3. He has had nothing but praise for Sarah Palin – saying he admires her populism? Sarah-populist? Really?

4. He pre-emptively called the President an Uncle Tom on Fox News the same night PBO was elected. He could have said “corporatist” or “oligarch” but he went with the term “Uncle Tom.”

And of course, the Naderites were upset that Shep Smith kicked his ass and exposed him for the coward swine that he is.

To me, Ralph Nader is leagues worse than John McCain. FWIW, at least McCain has had experience in Washington, Nader being around the same age as McCain, has virtually no clue about how Washington truly works. His only claim to fame is being a consumer advocate, and that’s not enough to get you elected dog catcher, let alone President of the United States.

Nader doesn’t do SHIT for four years and then crawls from the woodwork pretending to be a progressive that cares for the poor. He’s such a damn fake.
I still blame largely that asshole for Bush being selected in 2000. Nader is a spoiler who is not serious about winning. He does this every four years yet people are still foolish enough to take him seriously.

And his reasons for wanting to primary the president made absolutely NO sense.

LO took a question that was tweeted in asking why Nader wants to continually give the GOP the election? Nader argued against that viewpoint. I thought it reminded people of his taking votes from Gore which is a good thing to do as it might give someone pause that might agree with Nader.

Jovie I do not think so pondering to the far, far left he did that so people can take a look at this crazy man
president want to be Nadare looks like an IDIOTA insana all blah, blah, blah No one will ever take this man
seriously even the far left I hope this is NOT 2000 we are smarter than that.

UGGG! Lawrence O’Donnell is interviewing that SNAKE Ralph Nader (and I just ate my dinner not too long ago). I think I’ll turn over to the Cosby Show during that interview because I might not make it to the bathroom in time to barf.

On a much more happier note, isn’t it great that Elizabeth Warren is leading Scott Brown in Massachusetts? Now, hopefully, she will be able to raise lots of money (I will be happy to contribute) so she can beat Wall Street-owned Scott Brown.

I have always enjoyed Elizabeth Warren’s interviews on TV, and she will be a great asset to the U.S. Senate.

Hack Howard Fineman is at it again…He has then nerve to say on the LO’D show that Elizabeth Warren’s successful polling against Scott Brown is PBO’s failure…WTF? When Scott Brown (R) won the seat, it was PBO’s failure, and now Scott’s opponent Warren (D) appears to be pulling ahead, it’s also a failure for PBO? This is laughable, although disturbing on so many levels…SHEESH!!

Mr. Fineman is disgusting filthy scum. I’m sorry but that’s what he is.

Coward Fineman is more of the DC insiders that folks are tuning off, because they rail in consistent negativity with zero substance. Instead of talking about how President Obama has once again taken the Republicans cake and eaten it too, Coward Fineman finds another issue to blame on President Obama with the Warren-Brown race.

Coward Fineman just wants to hear himself talk, just like the rest of the emoprog left blowhards. He needs to be soundly ignored.

Exactly what I was going to say. I’ve read it over and over again–exactly WHAT is he trying to say? HHe has never had one positive thing to say about the President. HP made a real telling statement when they hhired Fineman.

Lawrence has just said he has NEVER received NEGATIVE comments on Twitter like the ones he got when he asked people to submit their questions regarding the NADER interview. Am proud to say I was one of them who blasted Nader and called him all kinds of names when I tweeted Larry today.

I wish he were like the crazy uncle! This guy is not only dangerous for our democracy, he’s purposeful…he is a Repub enabler (has been funded largely by Republican donors over the years) and has racist leanings, refering to President OBama as a potential “Uncle Tom” the very night he was elected!!

And the fact that Russ Feingold has come out against these shenanigans should speak volumes to the emoprogs.

As much as I disagreed with many of Russ Feingold’s political leanings, he’s an intelligent man and knows there’s nothing to be gained from betting against the President. Corny West and Ralph Nader just want the attention, and of course the right want to pull another Operation Chaos since they are essentially acknowledging their own field of candidates sucks.

I hadn’t caught what Russ Feingold was saying, but found this on HuffPo (so I won’t link):

“I strongly disagree with Ralph Nader. As I’ve said many times before, I believe that re-electing President Obama is an absolute imperative for our economy, our judicial system, for progressives and for our country … President Obama took office in a time of historic challenge for the country. He passed the Recovery Act to bring our economy back from the brink, implemented historic health insurance reform to make health care more affordable and accessible, repealed the discriminatory Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, and rejected the conventional wisdom in Washington to offer a life-saving loan to the auto industry, saving 1.4 million jobs … Now, facing Republican candidates that are bought-and-sold by corporate money, and who want to give more tax breaks to the wealthiest and attack the rights of working Americans, the President is fighting to create jobs and provide economic security for middle class families. 2012 will be a close and competitive election, and in an environment after the lawless Citizens United decision, where corporate special interests will be out there fighting for Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, progressives must unite to ensure that the President is reelected.”

This was an excellent statement from Russ Feingold – and I haven’t been a supporter of Russ Feingold since he voted “no” for many key initiatives during the 111th Congress, and ran away from President Obama during the 2010 election. This statement makes up for a lot.

Oh thank you Russ Feingold. I have found it hard to dislike Russ Feingold because despite his sometimes inexplicable votes he did comment on the obstruction Pres. Obama was facing LONG before it became this bad. I’m too lazy to find the quote now but It gave me comfort to know that he saw what was going on.

“In light of your defamatory remarks, our Gulf of Mexico Regional Office has asked me to advise you that its personnel will not be available to meet with you on Sept. 30, as previously arranged,” wrote Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), in a letter to Landry Monday.

Former Rep. Robert Wexler, a prominent backer of President Obama’s Israel policies, told POLITICO today that while Hamas would “cheer” Governor Rick Perry’s threats to defund the Palestinian Authority, Israelis would “pay in blood.”

“The policies that Governor Perry is advocating are so far out of the mainstream, and would result in so much damage to the state of Israel, that for him Israel must be an ideology or a religious obsession, without a care about the safety and security of the seven million israelis who actually live there and the brave soldiers of the IDF,” he said. Wexler said he was concerned, particularly, about Republican threats to defund the Palestinian Authority, and the resulting prospect that the PA’s security forces could collapse.

“If we actually did what Governor Perry advocates, Hamas would benefit greatly an the Israeli people would pay in blood, as would the Palestinian people,” he said.

Wexler also suggested that Perry doesn’t fully understand the issue, noting that Perry’s conditions for peace — direct negotiations, a Hamas renunciation of terrorism, and the recognition of a Jewish State — are policies Obama supports during a week in which the Administration is aligned with Israel at the United Nations. (Perry seemed to cast these as conditions for peace; Obama has made them policy goals.)

“I wonder if he read his own speech before he started talking,” Wexler said.

Wexler, a Florida Democrat who now heads the non-partisan S. Daniel Abraham Center for Middle East Peace, also said his presence this week on an Obama campaign conference call later today doesn’t compromise his non-partisan, non-profit status. He will do the call “on my own time,” he said, and would be happy to participate on a call on the subject for the Romney campaign in the unlikely event they asked him.

Good I like Robert Wexler he is a strong PBO supporter. Am dreading tomorrow knowing Netanyahu is going to be on all television with his Ego. I loathe that man I can’t stand him and I can’t hide it. I wonder when we will get a new Prime Minister in Israel.

Here’s my opinion of men like Ralph Nader, they use to command the spotlight, now people hardly give him the time of day. So now he must do whatever he can to get attention. Nader knew when he ran for President he was not going to win, but he seek the attention. Now here he is again, and the media gives him his fifteen minutes of fame. In his day, Nader did some good, but now he is just plain pitiful.

Senate confirms 99th and 100th Obama judicial nominees
By Josiah Ryan – 09/20/11 05:49 PM ET
The Senate on Tuesday afternoon confirmed the 99th and 100th Obama judicial nominees this year keeping a pace which ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) celebrated as faster than previous years.

The Senate confirmed Timothy M. Cain, 99 to 0, to serve on the district court in South Carolina after receiving a ringing endorsement from his senator and former law firm partner Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

“You will not find one person who has practiced before Cain as a lawyer who has anything but high praise for him,” said Graham. “He is the total package.”

The Senate also confirmed John Andrew Ross to the district court in the Eastern District of Missouri.

Prior to the vote Grassley touted the pace of the Senate in confirming Obama’s nominees as faster than previous Congresses including those controlled by Democrats when President Bush held the White House.

But Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), who is the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, complained that Republicans were still miring progress of democratic nominees.

The nominees have “been pending for 170 days without justification,” said Leahy, prior to the vote.

A man climbed over the White House fence near its western entrance gate and ran toward the presidential residence Tuesday evening before he was apprehended by uniformed Secret Service officers, authorities said.

No one was injured, said Max Milien, a spokesman for the Secret Service. The man’s name was not released.

The man carried a backpack as he clambered over the fence, then ran with his arms outstretched directly toward officers who ordered him to the ground with their weapons drawn. The backpack was later deemed to be safe, Milien said.

The episode occurred around 6:35 p.m. as tourists and passers-by walked on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House. Officers immediately evacuated the avenue and Lafayette Square across from the White House.

Vice-President Joe Biden stopped in Chicago Tuesday night to rally the troops at the presidential re-election headquarters, then he hit two fund-raisers expected to bring in $250,000 to $500,000.

The president and first lady were in New York also raising money for the re-election effort.

“When the president spoke yesterday, he didn’t ask for anything crazy,” Biden said.

By contrast, Biden said it was Republicans who were blocking compromise for political gain:

“Pete Sessions, the head of the [Republican] re-elect committee, a congressman from Texas, said, ‘Why should we bail out Barack Obama? His back is against the wall. All it can do its help him.,’” Biden told the crowd. “It’s a simple answer: America. America. Our economy. These guys are playing a different game than the president’s playing. And we are no longer playing.”

donna dem 4 obama, I think alot of our VP too, and his wife Jill. This is what these jackasses like Sessions don’t get. It’s not about the President winning, it’s about the American people winning. The people who are suffering, who needs jobs, who want to feed their family, put a roof over their head. The Republicans don’t care about the middle class and the working poor. It is ashame that that is all they are concern about , defeating this President. I hope the American people will see who is truly on their side, who is fighting for them, and that is President Obama.

Don’t get angry, but I was watching David Schuster sitting in for KO interview this guy this evening, and he said that people in the White House are definitely going to continue calling the Repugs out. They realize that they are going to have to get people to see the difference in what the Dems and the GOP are offering to win this election. I sure wish that I could have seen VP Biden speak. I love to hear him.

i was saddened to read this today of all days with DADT has been laid to rest. damn I remember the bullies from middle/high school, and yeah they were dicks, but at the very least, once you left school, the bullies couldn’t torment you while you were at home…at least. Today’s bullies have the added benefit of the internet, so not only can they bully the poor kids for 8-10 hours at school, but the bullied kids don’t even have the luxury of NOT being bullied while away from school just enjoying their damn time surfin’ the net…

from the pool report: “Michelle Obama drew bursts of applause and a standing ovation in a speech that was as much an endorsement of her husband’s accomplishments as a rallying cry to the Democratic Party’s troops.

“Are you in?” she asked at the end of a 20-minute address to 400 mostly female supporters in Manhattan. “Are you ready for work? We all have to be fired up and ready to go.”

At least, if he re-enlists, he won’t be able to (a) be on her show; (b) bash his Commander in Chief. So, if he gets back in, it would keep him all wrapped up and would be a good thing. Kind of like when PBO sent Jon Huntsman to China. (I’m devious.)

I seriously don’t think his mental state is on a even keel, and if he’s denied entry back into the service, he will once again blame PBO.
I think after his stunt at the nutroots convention, there are many who’ve come to the same conclusion.

OKAY folks, I am not a fan of CNN but I was alerted to a segment on the Piers Morgan show in which the former Israeli Prime Minister was being interviewed. Morgan tried to push the MSM and Rick Perry’s talking points about PBO being bad for Israel. I guess he wasn’t expecting this, but the Prime Minister had nothing but praise for the President and said that PBO has done much more for Israel than any other US President!!

I am going to see if I can get a piece of video on this. The MSM will try to bury it as quickly as possible but we won’t let them get away with it!

It’s because this president saved 6 Israeli lives last week, I Cairo!
At the Israeli embassy, the President used his contacts(direct details are not known) to safely rescue these Israeli peeps!
Our media missed it, but Israeli newspapers interviewed nut and yahoo and he was very grateful to our President!

DATE NIGHT: The Obamas sounded frisky at a Gotham Hall fundraiser Tuesday night in New YOrk City.

“This is like our date night,” Michelle Obama said. She thanked organizers for the “intimate” 400-person dinner, at which singer Alicia Keys performed for donors who anted up at least $2,500 each.

“Who knows what will happen?” she said ambiguously.

The first lady said people often ask her if the presidency is taking a toll on her husband. “The only difference I can think of is the salt is starting to catch up with the pepper” in his hair, Michelle Obama said. “I think it’s quite sexy.”

As she spoke about meeting her husband decades ago in Chicago, she said: “That’s the same man who won me over all those nights ago.”

When President Obama himself took the stage later, he declared that he was “in a New York state of mind” but he also seemed to be in an affectionate state of mind.

“She’s not bad. Do you notice how she’s getting cuter,” Obama said. “She is remarkable.”

He called the event “the closest we get to a date,” though he said could perhaps arrange a real date “in about 14 months.”

“This is not my idea of a date night,” he added later. “Normally our dates don’t end with me being before 400 of our closest friends.

I have http://www.whitehouse.gov/ as my homepage and all I can say is that President Obama and his administration are mopping the floor with the Republican Party. Every time I turn around, there is another project or initiative being rolled out to improve the lives of the American people. The website is absolutely stunning and there is a wealth of information. The amount of activity at whitehouse.gov is just breathtaking. The use of social media is unprecedented. My wish is that more Americans will find out this valuable resource and make use of it.

It has been exciting to watch the transformation of whitehouse.gov over time during the Obama administration. The weekly address, the west wing week, photo of the day, white board presentations, etc. To see the drastic change, check out the link below which shows the previous administration whitehouse.gov as it was frozen in time on January 20, 2009.

Night and Day in terms of the websites.. The President is kicking ass and taking no prisoners. Chipsticks can you re=psot the video on I will crush my enemies if I think they are taking advantage of me…

I saw her. Pelosi was phenominal.
It was also nice to see a celebration to the end of that nasty policy , DADT. Did it get media attention? I don’t know because I no longer trust or watch the other “news” channels.

They’re both to die for GORGEOUS!!!!!! I looooooooove how Mrs. Obama’s skin is glowing. P90X is getting an unofficial endorsement because her body is siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiick. Thanks for the pics Chips. :)

A House Republican freshman on Tuesday night called on the federal government to step up enforcement of U.S. immigration laws, and said removing illegal aliens is one way to create needed jobs for Americans.

“There is a surefire way to create jobs now for American citizens,” Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) said on the House floor. “Evict all illegal aliens from America and immediately open up millions of jobs for unemployed Americans.”

Usually my date night doesn’t end up with me being in front of 400 of our closest friends. I guess Mr. President your date night usually end up with you being in front of one person, your wife. Doing what I don’t know. I can guess, but I won’t.

The sexiest first couple (or any couple) ever. There is no daylight between the two of them in that full body embrace in the third photo below the video, WOW! I love how they are always touching and embracing as if they are alone, even when they are in the midst of crowd. Their love gives him the strength to bear our burdens and the slings and arrows of his enemies. So glad that they have each other and that we have them.